Good policy is rarely accidental. It is usually the result of careful study, patient advocacy, and sustained engagement — a process Donald Bryson knows well.

Donald Bryson, president and CEO of the John Locke Foundation, a free market think tank in North Carolina, joins the Overton Window Podcast to pull back the curtain on how policy is really made.

“The idea has been around for a while: We need experts, maybe with a particular worldview, to help us walk through these societal or governmental problems,” Bryson says. “That's what we do here for lawmakers in North Carolina at the John Locke Foundation. That's what the Mackinac Center does in Michigan.”

The internet has increased accessibility and distribution to extent that “essentially a guy in his basement can call himself a think tank at this point,” Bryson says.

“How we retain authority is through fidelity to our principles; what we say our mission and vision is for Michigan or North Carolina. And then also just being rigorous with the research that we produce.”

These institutions operate in a space between academia and activism. “We are quasi-academic institutions and we have people with advanced degrees who take on very serious topics and know how to do rigorous quantitative and qualitative research and regurgitate it and synthesize it in such a way that it's usable for lawmakers.”

Think tanks play a unique role in shaping policy. “The job of the Republican party is to get Republicans elected. The job of the Democratic party is to get Democrats elected. Our job is no matter who is in power to get the best possible pubic policy in place for North Carolina.”

Oftentimes, the desired change is gradual, patient work. Bryson singles out school choice policy to illustrate a shift in the Overton Window.

“It was the 1950s when Milton Friedman was first writing about private school vouchers.” Reform gained traction in 1992 with the Wisconsin scholarship program, and later with the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program in the early 2000s.

“Then COVID happens, right? Well, everybody's really upset about how their child is being educated. They want other options.” As a result, “School choice has exploded since then.”

Research informs that momentum. But influencing policy is not only about advancing new ideas; sound policy also requires a great deal of defense. “Think tanks spend a significant portion of their time preventing bad things from happening.”

Bryson points to North Carolina’s recent energy debate. In 2020 and 2021, Governor Roy Cooper proposed a plan to bring the state to zero emissions by 2050, with a 70 percent reduction by 2030. The proposal included mandates for wind and solar power.

“At the Locke Foundation, we don't actually care where the electrons come from, but we do want it to be affordable and reliable, right? And mandates don't generally create affordability and reliability.”

The foundation pushed for affordability and reliability to be prioritized in regulatory review.

“We were able to influence that cost had to be the number one thing that the Utilities Commission in the state had to take under consideration when they reviewed the new resource plans from the utilities in the state.”

The requirement to consider affordability and reliability led the legislature to look at alternatives to high-cost solar and offshore wind options.

“Now we're seeing more natural gas and nuclear energy than we've ever seen in North Carolina before.”

A lot of the foundation’s time, energy, and resources goes into the research it produces to inform lawmakers. But at the end of the day, “It doesn't really matter if we do all that research if nobody knows about it or reads it.” That means social media, polling, and conversations with legislators across the aisle are increasingly integral to success.

“Our job is to literally help people and change the world for them,” Bryson says. “So no, we don't wear capes, we don't wear big S's on our chest; we know that we're successful if people's lives are better in our own state.”

Listen to the full conversation on The Overton Window Podcast.

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